X-ray analysis techniques have been some of the most significant developments in science and technology over the previous century. The use of x-ray diffraction, x-ray spectroscopy, x-ray imaging, and other x-ray analysis techniques has lead to a profound increase in knowledge in virtually all scientific fields.
Today, x-ray imaging is used in a variety of applications, including medical, scientific and industrial applications. Various ones of these applications can be extremely challenging. For example, screening mammography using x-ray imaging is a critical and challenging application, where dose, contrast, resolution and costs are all important
Patient dose is reduced and image quality is increased using monochromatic beams by the removal of low energy photons that are otherwise heavily absorbed in the patient without contributing to the image, and the removal of high energy photons that give relatively low subject contrast and cause Compton scattering, which degrades image quality. One problem, however, is that synchrotrons are expensive, and not generally clinically available. Monochromatic beams can also be achieved by using single crystal diffraction from a conventional source, but such implementations do not give the desired intensity since only the small fraction of the incident beam at the right energy and the right angle is diffracted.
Thus, there exists a need in the art for x-ray imaging system enhancements to, for example, more beneficially balance dose, contrast, resolution and costs considerations than currently available x-ray imaging systems.